So, we take the dogs on their first full family hike this past Saturday. We loaded everyone up into the car and headed into the nearby mountain. The goal was to get out, get some exercise, and get the dogs working for a while- see what happened. Odie had been on a hike with us before, and done really well. That little guy is made of batteries. Piper was the unknown in this equation, as well as the fact this this particular trail was challenging when we did it last time over a year ago, so we were eager to hit it again.
We started out with the dogs divided up to their appropriate humans. I was more then happy to let Piper drag me up the hill as much as she wanted to- why do the work when the dog is eager to do it? Odie and His Boy were behind us, happily trucking along, and making me feel like I had to keep up the pace.
About halfway up this very drastically inclined hill (wow, was it this bad last time we did this? this is kinda sucky hard) we run into a lot of dry brush along the trail. We're blazing through, pushing it all aside and keeping on the trail. The Dogs on the other hand, find all the new and interesting smells a lot of fun and keep sticking their faces into said dried brush. Having been through numerous eye infections with our previous dog, I was trying to keep an eye on this, make sure no one scratched their eyeballs.
What I hadn't factored in with Piper's enormous nose.
So, at one point we stopped to water everyone, and Piper's entire front half disappears into some shrubs. I let her sniff away, thinking she'd found yet another lizard to chase (our newfound favorite activity, chasing geckos), until she reappeared COVERED in dry brush bits and pieces. Individual petals, sticks, leaves, etc on just about every dry square inch of her front half.
And then
it began
Sneezing.
Such insanely violent sneezing that her entire body was involved. So many in a row that I lost count. It had to have been a full minute of her sneezing. At which point I figured we were in the clear and we moved on.
Nope.
not so much.
We had probably 10 more instances of the sneezing fits. She sneezed so hard she started foaming at the mouth. She sneezed so hard she had a snot trail coming from her nose and wrapped around her head. She sneezed so hard there was a Pigpen style dust cloud following her where ever she went. She sneezed so hard she was drooling.
Every sneeze was painful looking- it involved her entire body. She'd squint for a split second before it started, and sometimes even smack her head on the ground with the energy behind it. I swear if she were a human there would have been cold sweats involved.
Eventually we turned around and headed back to the car. The sneezing continued all the way back, and even happened a couple of times in the car. It was so pitiful and so gross all at the same time. At this point, I realized...... some of that dry brush was foxtail plants.
Crap.
Foxtail is a plant that is nothing but trouble. The stickers.... seeds... off shoots... whatever the hell they are, are barbed. Barbed things up noses..... not so great for doggie. That's most likely the reason behind the sneezing. Which is bad.
Well, we watched it for a day or so, and ended up in the vets office, where I found out she had most likely sneezed out whatever was bothering her. I also learned that foxtail is INSANELY dangerous for dogs. Much more so then I ever thought. I mean, talk about death by a thousand cuts- these stupid things can literally enter their blood stream and cause all kinds of problems.
So thankfully, the sneezing ended, the foxtail left on it's own accord (although how it could have stayed up there with that level of force trying to get it out, is beyond me) and I learned just how dangerous a dogs nose can be. Especially when loaded with natural explosives.
Makes me wonder, if she had sneezed out the foxtail while I was bent over looking at her nose- could it have flown into my face, worked its way into my bloodstream and causing all kinds of trouble? Possibly.
It's possible, her nose could have killed me.
Weapon, right there.
Someone should know about that.
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